Perseverance in Paralysis
by BlackDandelion
Summary: Quinn and Artie fall in love and Mercedes beats someone up.Quartie/Samcedes/Quinncedes Two-shot


Author's note: Let's just NOT discuss what is going on in Glee and how much I want to punch a wall everytime I think about it. Good lord. Anyway, I'm hoping for Quartie (ain't gonna happen, but nothing I want to does) so I wrote this fic because my brain wouldn't leave me alone. It's Samcedes heavy (come on, it's me) and Quinncedes heavy. Part I of II (hopefully).

**Perseverance in Paralysis : Part I**

The first time Quinn Fabray kisses Artie Abrams he can't help but think _so this is why Finn can't tell the difference between Obama and Wyclef _because all his blood rushes way, way away from his brain and he's not sure it will ever return.

* * *

><p>They start off slow.<p>

_Ofcoursetheydo. She'sjustbeenparalyzed. _

Small nudges with their wheelchairs, brushing numb legs against each other.

The first time she manages to navigate through the Jones' hallway without Mercedes' loyal hands pushing her, she turns to Artie and smiles and his answering smile makes her feel like she's climbed the Mt Everest.

_Notthatshecanclimbanymore. She'sparalyzed,remember?_

* * *

><p>The slow comes to a sprint when Finn starts being a dick.<p>

_Whatelseisnew?_

The wedding, Rachel, everything drops from Finn's brain when he sees his darling Quinn lying in the hospital bed. He has to get her back.

"Dude, maybe you should back off Quinn a bit? She was just in a pretty life-threatening accident..." Sam says as he meets Finn in the hallway of the Jones house. Mrs Jones, badass that she is, insisted on Quinn moving in during her recovery. She had never really left anyway.

"Just being a good friend," says Finn, hoisting the jar of Jellybabies higher in his arms. Quinn hates Jellybabies. Sam knows that because Mercedes had a long discussion with him when he had bought them for movie nights. There were a lot of big words and talk about jelly sticking in your teeth and Quinn's inability to eat anything with the word 'baby' in it.

_Shehadababyremember?_

"You broke up with Rachel," states Sam, leaning against the doorframe. Finn feels a flicker of irritation because it doesn't seem like Sam would be letting him in anytime soon.

"It felt wrong."

"Before or after Quinn's accident?"

* * *

><p>"He brought her <em>jellybabies<em>?" Mercedes whispers harshly in his ear. He has hoisted her leg above his hip and is very busy licking her neck, but she is straining it to observe the conversation between Finn and Quinn in the living room. "_Jellybabies_? Could he be anymore... Oh, Sam." She groans as he bites the junction between her neck and shoulder and her eyes roll back for a second.

"Yes, he did." Sam presses against her roughly and _feels _her throb against him. He leans her further into the wall and hoists her off her feet, legs wrapping around his waist. "Could you _focus?"_

"I'm just-" She captures his lips for a minute and spends a minute adoring his taste, his scent, _him._ "-worried."

She drags one hand down his chest and his answering kiss is so hot all worries fly out of her head.

Quinn's laughing voice implodes their bubble.

"Guys! Seriously, I know you think we can't see you if you do dirty things next to the door, but you realize that if the door isn't closed I can still _see_?"

* * *

><p>Mercedes loves hearing Quinn laugh.<p>

When she was pregnant she would laugh whenever the baby kicked or her dad made waffles with raspberry syrup.

After the accident there was a week of morose looks. No laughs.

Sam pulled out his Tim Gunn impression. A slight smile.

Rachel walked into a wall. A slight twinkle.

Mercedes' father makes a mountain of waffles. A bright smile.

But no laugh.

Not until Artie rolls into the Jones' living room with glitter and an excited Brittany.

"What's going on guys?" asks Quinn, looking up from her place between Sam and Mercedes' on the sofa. They're having a James Cameron marathon, because Sam won the coinflip.

"Quinn," Artie starts in what Mercedes calls his 'director-voice'. Sam calls it his stick-up-the-ass voice, but whatever. "Have you ever seen a show call "Pimp my ride"?"

Quinn rolls her eyes. "Who hasn't?"

"Well," Brittany pulls out numerous paintbrushes, glitter bottles and plastic flowers as Artie rolls over to Quinn's chair, stored in the corner, "this is the Fabray-special."

In the end, Quinn's chair looks like a deranged masterpiece that belongs in a Tim Burton film. Gold glitter is glued to the wheels in thick layers. A large Q in gold decorates the back of the chair. Plastic sunflowers weave along the chairs back and stretch to the armrest.

It's awesome and she loves it. They all go for a walk _wellshecan'treallywalk_ to the park and small children run up to touch her flowers and admire how the glitter in her wheels catches in the sunlight and she's practically a mobile discoball.

_Justbecauseshe'sparalyzeddoesn'tmeanshecan'tbepretty._

And when a small girl tells her she looks like a princess, she turns to Artie and she laughs her ass off because she's the furthest from a fairytale princess you can get.

* * *

><p>"Quinn, I need to-" He plumps her pillows again and she wants to roll her eyes.<p>

"Yes, Finn?" She can't help the snarkiness that floods her voice, it's late, she wants to watch Project Runway without interruptions and he keeps looking at the Jellybabies and then her like it's a subtle way to tell her to eat them.

"Just-" he stumbles over his sentence again and she asks for the patience of a thousand first-grade teachers. "Are you thinking about dating?"

The question stumps her and she misses the model on the runway tripping.

_Justbecauseshe'sparalyzeddoesn'tmeanshecan'._

She opens her mouth to answers and then thanks the lord when Artie rolls in. He's carrying the Chinese takeout that he, Sam and Mercedes had left to get.

"Meals on wheels, get it!" he announces as he places the boxes on the Jones' living room table.

"Dude, that's so insensitive!" Finn exclaims, gesturing toward Quinn who is watching Artie with amusement dancing across delicate feature.

"Seriously, Finn?" Artie deadpans and Quinn laughs so loud Mercedes hears her in the next room and is so happy that she gives Sam a kiss that makes his head spin.

* * *

><p>"I think Finn asked me out."<p>

Mercedes looks slightly nauseous. "Oh good lord."

"Thank you!" Quinn exclaims, flailing her arms about.

"That's just... ew."

"I know!" Quinn flails her arms extra hard.

_Shecan'tmoveherlegs,remember? ._

"Gross." Mercedes sticks her tongue out and crosses her eyes. "He really can't choose a girl, can he? As soon as one of them is in trouble..."

"Maybe he should go gay," Quinn muses.

"Unfortunately, I think Furt sailed out the window one Warbler ago." Mercedes places the toast on the table and Quinn rolls closer. None of them mention the tea that spills across the table when her chair bumps against the table leg. "You said no, right?"

Quinn takes a huge bite of the bacon and mumbles through the meat, "I couldn't, because he didn't really form a question. He just stuttered. A lot."

Mercedes laughs and cleans up the tea, quickly.

"But you're going to say no?"

"Of course," says Quinn and sinks her teeth in her perfectly brown toast.

"Good. Seeing as you're in love with Artie and all."

Dr Jones walks into the kitchen a minute later to find Quinn bug-eyed and choking on toast and his daughter doing absolutely nothing to help her but shaking in her chair with laughter.

* * *

><p>"Look it's nerd-on-wheels and his girlfriend slut-on-wheels!" Azimio laughs loudly and the whole glee club holds a collective breath.<p>

It's the hallway and it's public and it's just two weeks after Quinn's been cleared to go home and she's finally back at school.

And suddenly, Azimio is flailing and Mercedes is on the warpath, busting out all the moves her brother taught her to use in self-defense.

In the end it takes Sam, Mike and Rory to pull her off him. It takes fifteen stitches and a precautionary MRI scan before Azimio can be sent home.

"You realize you could be suspended?" asks Rachel as they sit in the choir room.

"No," gasps Mercedes, "really?" And Sam snorts.

"Don't be like that," says Rachel sharply, "this could really affect your future."

"Shut up, hobbit," snarls Santana, holding a worried Brittany.

"Evans, I would be so turned on if I were you. 'mama beat that ass down like a pro." And Sam sends Puck a sharp nod but never takes his eyes of Mercedes.

"Thank you," Quinn whispers suddenly. She's looking at the ground and clutching Artie's hand like it's the only thing keeping her in the room.

_Justbecauseshe'sparalyzeddoesn'tmeanpeopledon'tloveher. Loveloveloveher._

And just as suddenly Mercedes is kneeling infront of her chair, grasping Quinn's chin in her hand and forcing her to look her in the eyes. "Que, I love you. You know that."

And there's a moment of pure sisterhood in the room as Quinn sobs and throws herself into Mercedes waiting arms.

* * *

><p>It's quiet in the office.<p>

Mercedes sits between her parents facing Figgins, Sue and Mr Schue.

When her mother had heard what had happened she had given an hour long lecture on how violence isn't the answers and concussions are dangerous. But she could see the twinkle in her eyes and when the lecture was over she gave Mercedes such a long hug that the whole speech was essentially counter-productive.

Her father had just nodded, offered her a fist to bump and then pulled her into a hug that made her burst into tears.

_Beatinguppeopleisscary. Shedoesn'tlikeit. Butshe'ddoitagain. BecauseofQuinn. _

"Mercedes, what were you thinking?" asks Mr Schue, dragging a hand across his face.

She rolls her eyes and thanks the lord when Sue answers. "You just heard the story, Richard Simmons, tell me how her actions were _not _necessary?"

"Sue," sighs Principal Figgins, "we can't just go around allowing students to beat up other students."

"Why not? You have for years." Mercedes slams a hand on her mouth and blushes. She wishes Sam or Quinn had been allowed to join. They had fought valiantly for a place in the meeting but had been denied by all adults. Sam had punched a wall when he had heard and Mercedes found it equally sexy and idiotic.

"We will cover Azimio's medical expenses and Mercedes has already apologized to him," Dr Jones' voice rings clear in the room and for the first time she is truly thankful that he has a such deep and authoritative voice that could make her wet her pants when she was small. "I have already talked to the family and they are not going to press charges."

It turned out that Azimio's father, a long-term patient of Dr Jones, had not been too happy that Azimio had been going around bullying handicapped people. So unhappy, in fact, that Dr Jones had to do a lot of calming to prevent Azimio from ending up in a wheelchair as well.

"It's the principle of the thing-" sighs Mr Schue and Dr Jones glares at the curly-haired "teacher".

"Oh Will," exclaims Figgins, looking perky and clapping his hands together, "no need for suspensions if everything has already been sorted out. Ms Jones is a model student after all!"

Mr Schue looks disgruntled and Mercedes swallows the lump in her throat as she realizes that he thinks she should be punished. Not Rachel for sending Sunshine to a crackhouse, not Finn for throwing Kurt into dumpsters, but Mercedes for protecting her sister.

But the hurt lessens a bit as Sue offers her a covert fistbump when they exit the office.

* * *

><p>Artie, Quinn and Sam wait anxiously outside Figgins office. Sam paces, Quinn rolls and Artie sits.<p>

"Y'all need to calm down," Artie says, finally breaking the silence. "It's 'Cedes, she's badass."

"I know, but suspension? Expulsion? Oh, god - I'm going to be sick." Sam sits down and puts his head between his legs. Quinn and Artie share an amused look.

He rolls towards her and pulls both hands into his.

"You okay?" She smiles and he wants to bottle it up and save it for a rainy day.

"Thank you for being here."

"No where else in the world I'd rather be."

And there isn't. No Halo-convention. No Brainiacs practice. No Supernatural marathon.

_Becauseit''snotjustbecauseshe'sparalyzed._

* * *

><p>It's because she just is, he realizes when they're in the Jones' living room, celebrating.<p>

Their fingers are entertwined and he's pretty sure they have been for the last four hours. He can't remember not feeling the pads of Quinn's fingers against his.

"To Mercedes," says Sam, raising his glass of chocolate milk and eying Mercedes with such love that Quinn's heart doubles in size _like the grinch_. "For kicking ass, taking numbers and not getting expelled."

Quinn and Mercedes are suspiciously quiet. There's this worry between them, as if they have the same thought. And Artie realizes that this is part of what she is - constantly in tune with other's emotions.

_Justbecauseshe'sparalyzeddoesn'tmeanshecan'tfeelbadforotherpeople._

"Are you going to tell us what's wrong?" Quinn's low voice startles Sam, whose guzzling chocolate milk like it's going out of style but Mercedes seemed to have been expecting it.

She takes a deep breath, and Sam says "babe?" all worried, before telling them about Mr Schue.

It's when Quinn starts rolling towards the door, shouting about "cuttin' a bitch", unwittingly dragging Artie along that he realizes - he's in love with Quinn Fabray.

* * *

><p><strong>TBC. <strong>


End file.
